Someone told you calisthenics is an important exercise in our daily lives. That’s why it is gaining popularity recently.
But, you have a doubt. You think of those athletes doing difficult moves, such as planche, muscle up, human flag, front lever, etc.
You can’t really fathom the gain of popularity as you don’t think many people can do these. Precisely, YOU cannot do these!
But, little do you know that this is simply BODYWEIGHT workout. In fact, you already did some of them.
Not convincing enough? What about squat, push up, lunges, etc? – And here they are!
Yes, calisthenics is important to our daily lives. In fact, it is important to outdoor activities.
Well, these two seem no relation, right? – Let me tell you, it’s wrong!
In this post, we are gonna discuss why it is important to outdoor activities…
1. Part of outdoor activities
When you jog or walk in the park, you might notice some interesting facilities, such as pull up bars and monkey bars.
They are built for bodyweight exercise. Meaning it is part of outdoor activities, too.
In fact, some committees promote this by building calisthenics parks. So, you could see the athletes doing “stunt” to impress the audience. – Cool, huh?
Since this is merely bodyweight exercise, don’t be shy if you can’t do the stunt.
Simple push-ups, pull-ups or squats are good enough for you to stay healthy.
And the perk is you can do these while walking, jogging, or chilling on the bench.
2. Improves strength & power
Calisthenics has various moves. It helps enhance the strength and power of our muscles.
There was a study on 28 untrained males to assess the effects of calisthenics. The males were divided into intervention group and control group.
The researches designed certain bodyweight workouts for the intervention group. However, the control group. didn’t have to do these.
Members in both groups did the following tests pre and post study for comparison:
- Postural assessment
- Hand grip test
- Pull-up and push-up tests
In the end, intervention group showed improvement in postural assessment, pull up and push up tests, except for hand grip test. The control group, however, showed no significant difference at all.
Thus, the researchers concluded that bodyweight training improves posture, strength and body composition.
Since muscle movement consists of PUSH and PULL, both are the most fundamental elements.
Let’s take PUSH-UP and PULL-UP as examples. Many advanced moves extend from these elements, such as front lever, handstand push up, muscle up, etc.
Besides, do you know that CORE is an essential element in calisthenics, too?
When we do push-ups or pull-ups, many think that these purely train our arms and shoulders.
In fact, we need to engage our core to do them properly. Otherwise, our form is skewed.
Clearly, besides your arms, shoulders and legs, it also trains your core.
What it means
These muscle groups, especially core muscles, are crucial for outdoor activities.
Just to name a few, such as rock climbing, swimming, kayaking, and hiking. The list goes on……
As a comparison, beginners with calisthenics background can perform better and learn faster than those who don’t.
Since outdoor activities demand certain level of muscle strength and power, this really complements.
3. Improves motor skills
Calisthenics is a COMPOUND exercise as it trains various muscle groups concurrently.
As a result, this improves your MOTOR skills. Simply said, it improves:
- Coordination
- Balance
- Agility
Do you still remember your first push-up? You might not be able to perform properly. Well, you arched your back too much. You flared your elbows outwards. Your shoulders were painful……
And you couldn’t even do push-up in full range of motion. Your push-up was totally off.
But after some time, you practiced more and improved your forms and technique. In the end, you form is nice and stable.
Then, you start to gain agility due to the gain of strength and flexibility of your muscles.
What it means
Some advanced outdoor activities need great motor skills. These are trail running, whitewater kayaking, rock climbing, ice skating, etc.
And that’s why calisthenics is a perfect workout to improve your motor skills!
This puts you in a great advantage when you just try the above outdoor activities.
You might find that you can grab and learn very fast while others are still struggling.
4. Improves endurance
You wanted to do burpees to lose weight. But, you struggled for the first time. You only managed to do 5 times and were already out of breath.
However, after a few attempts, you noticed burpees were not that tough and you could finally do 10 to 15 times in a row.
What does it means? This means burpees help improve your POWER and AEROBIC endurance.
It strengthens your muscle and further improves your power endurance. As a result, it enhances oxygen consumption efficiency and hence improves your aerobic endurance.
And burpee is just an example to show how calisthenics improves power and aerobic endurance.
What it means
You need good endurance for outdoor activities, ie. cycling, running, kayaking, backpacking……
It’s fine that you do these without calisthenics. But, like mentioned above, you can pick up faster and enjoy more if you have calisthenics background.
Most probably you don’t struggle too much like the rest.
Of course, advanced players need greater endurance to improve their performance. – And this can help, too.
5. Anytime, anywhere
You went for a 10km day hike with your friends. At the end of it, you were out of breath due to the lack of stamina and strength. – That day hike was killing you.
Despite the struggle, you enjoyed it. When you friends planned a tougher day hike, you were deeply motivated and accepted that without having a second thought.
But, you also worried that you couldn’t make it due to the lack of stamina and strength. So, you needed extra training for the next hike.
You planned to hit the gym. But it’s inconvenient due to the transportation.
What it means
Let’s consider calisthenics because you can do this ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
Not only can you do this outdoors, but you can also do at home.
How flexible is it?
For example, do some simple squats while watching TV programme.
Or, buy a pull up bar and hang on the door frame. Do a few pull-ups whenever you enter or exit the room.
Do a bit every day. After some time, you’d notice improvement of muscle strength and power and the endurance.
And that’s how you train yourself for the next outdoor activity outing. Don’t sit and do nothing.
6. Cheap
Perhaps this is the biggest perk. Since you use your body weight as resistance in workout, literally you can do it without any equipment.
Even if you need equipment, you might need pull up bar, parrallettes, gymnastic rings, yoga mat, etc.
They are really cheap and durable. Usually, you could use them for several years without replacement.
Well, not to say that you are a cheapskate. But if there is a cheaper option, why not?
You train whenever and wherever you want without spending money (or minimal), and you are ready for the next outing with your friends.
7. Modify difficulty
You love kayaking so much because paddling is fun!
But, your shoulder and arm sored after kayaking. You quickly learned that your shoulders, arms and core strength were weak and needed improvement.
Somehow, you knew push-up could help. But the problem was, you couldn’t even do one regular push-up.
So how to improve when your muscles were that weak?
What it means
This is another reason that you should consider calisthenics because you can modify the difficulty level of the move.
Regular push up is too hard for you? No problem, try knee pushup or incline pushup. Start small to build the strength and gradually raise the difficulty.
Likewise, you can do squats to strengthen your thighs and calves if you are into hiking or trail running.
And if normal squat is too easy for you, let’s try pistol squat or L-sit leg raise……
Clearly, the above are just the tip of the iceberg.
Likewise, outdoor activities have wide range of difficulty level, from walking to rock climbing.
You can adjust the difficulty level of any move and train based on the outdoor activities.
8. Cross training
You are an enthusiastic trail runner. You want to improve your performance so badly.
So, you ran on trails all the time, and nothing else. – But, is that the only way to train?
Look at the Olympic swimmers. While we think that they must be swimming a lot to refine their technique, that’s why this makes them professional swimmers.
In fact, it is only half of the case. Besides water training, they have extensive land training, too.
And this is CROSS TRAINING.
Cross training is an effective way to further enhance the performance of athletes while preventing muscle fatigue and injuries.
Also, it helps activate the less active muscle groups.
There was a study about the effectiveness of cross training for 10 long-distance runners at the Northern Borders University. The cross training consisted of both bodyweight and weight exercises.
At the end of the study, the results showed that:
- Improvement in both power and aerobic endurance
- Power endurance improvement lead to aerobic endurance improvement.
What it means
Like the case above, constant trail running can cause muscle fatigue and increase risk of injuries.
To further improve your performance, you can embed cross training into your routine.
And calisthenics is suitable for cross training.
Like how? Incorporate push-ups and pull-ups into your routine to strength your core. Or, do lunges or pistol squats to activate the other parts of the muscle group.
And the above is just an example. Be creative and include any relevant moves in your cross training for the outdoor activities.
9. Everyone
Some think that calisthenics is a male-dominant workout.
Let’s name a few gurus. You may have heard of Chris Heria, Simon Ata, Adam Frater, etc……
What about Demi Bagby, Melanie Driessen, or Natalia Modzelewska? – Well, they are female calisthenics athletes.
This shows that it is suitable for both male and female.
Not only this, even children and elders can do calisthenics, too.
Literally, it is for EVERYONE!
What it means
Remember a post about outdoor activities for everyone?
And don’t you realize this fits the scope of outdoor activities perfectly?
You can literally hike with your children or your parents. Likewise, to improve strength and endurance, you guys can do squats and push-ups together.
Here’s my experience. I met an elder who could hike and trail run much better than the youngsters.
He told me that he was a calisthenics athlete. And it helped him to be a good hiker and trail runner.
Final thought
To me, calisthenics is important as it sets strong foundation for outdoor activities.
Like kayaking, running and hiking, you need a strong core. And you can build strong core through it.
Or, for whitewater kayaking, rock climbing and ice skiing, you need excellent body coordination and agility. And you can have them through it, too.
The examples can keep going because both of them match very well.
Not only does it benefit the youngsters, but also children and elders. – As well as beginners and experienced athletes.
So, what do you think?
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